How to position your employer brand
Perception is reality, and in a world where image is everything, cultivating a unique employer brand can be worth its weight in bitcoin. This week, we examine the relationship between brand and talent. And yes, Elon Musk gets a mention.
Podcast: Lessons on talent branding from Intercom
In this week’s Scaling Stories, we caught up with senior talent brand strategist Matt Eyre.
Matt’s varied career has seen him work in marketing for the likes of Universal Pictures, EA Sports and Sega, and more recently, Silicon Valley Bank. When he joined Intercom, Matt made the leap from brand marketing to talent marketing, so he’s well placed to explain how this crossover works.
“If you look for a definition of a brand strategy, you’re generally gonna see something like a plan to achieve a series of goals resulting in the preference of your brand by consumers,” Matt explains. “So if we think about how to apply that to talent… you’re thinking, how do I build a strategy that’s going to last and that’s going to enable us to build a brand that is meaningful to the people that we’re talking to.”
At its simplest, employer branding is “how you present your company to the world”, says Matt, and requires “very consistent messaging”.
But when most brands offer similar talking points, how do you stand out? Matt draws lessons from self-confessed ‘employer brand nerd’ James Ellis, who says that effective brand messaging is usually four things:
In our discussion, Matt also gives fresh insights on those well-trodden topics of mission, culture and values. In a world where young candidates can simply “jump on TikTok and find out what a company is like”, employers have to think hard about how they meet a candidate’s expectations on culture, rather than simply “sticking 20 words up on your website”.
“They want to know what a company stands for. They want to know what the work experience is gonna be like when they get there,” Matt says, and says that many candidates are looking for “validated values”.
“What do these values mean to me and how am I gonna engage with them on a day-to-day basis? You know, it’s not just ‘how much am I gonna earn and what’s my title gonna be’ anymore? Those days are gone.”
Of course, companies can forge their own unique culture, and that’s going to look different at JP Morgan than a crypto startup making monkey j-pegs. But as Matt says, perhaps there is merit in simply “being true to the values you hold”.
The employers strike back?
Picking up on the theme of culture, most would agree that the last couple of years have been a candidate-friendly environment. Famously, there were resignations at the likes of Apple for its return-to-office policy (later reversed), not to mention pay increases for many, and the much-publicised Great Resignation.
But after a period of 0% interest rates, followed by spiralling global inflation and mass tech layoffs, it’s worth reflecting on whether the pendulum has swung back in favour of employers, and what that might mean for how we think about company culture.
And while the tech industry defied gravity for much of 2020 and 2021, nowadays monthly tech layoffs are already at an annual peak, as the below demonstrates.
Moreover, the most recent Battery State of the OpenCloud report 2022 gives an insight as to the struggles ahead:
Little wonder why so many graduates wish they’d studied Robotics at the University of Mars.
So what does all this mean for company culture?
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The revolution will not be televised
You may have seen that the new emperor of Twitter, Elon Musk, wrote an email to staff which outlined his vision for Twitter 2.0’s working culture:
Whatever one’s views on the subject, Elon has clearly thrown a metaphorical hand grenade into the conversation. It begs the question, is your company culture “extremely hardcore” or somewhat softcore with pizza parties and beer pong?
Gergely Orosoz gave a summary of what’s been going on at Twitter, and suggested that the positioning is akin to “a startup that is up against the world”.
Elsewhere, there are spicy takes that describe what’s going on as the first shots in a ‘war’ between business owners and the “professional-managerial class”:
But it’s not just Elon Musk who’s leading the employer fightback.
In Israel, Similarweb has laid off 10% of its staff and its CEO was quoted as saying:
“It’s been clear to managers for a long time that employees take advantage of working from home and work much less. Now the market is becoming an employers’ market, and the employers want the employees to return to work from the office.”
Similarly, the managing director at London-based hedge fund TCI wrote to Alphabet to recommend “aggressive action” to cut back on the number of Google and YouTube employees, following in the footsteps of cost-cutting measures at Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.
We hate to spoil the party, but in the words of Mel C featuring Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, things may Never Be The Same Again.
Talent still matters
Short of firing everyone except the caretaker, is there any alternative to all this slash and burn? As this piece in The Information explains, mass layoffs need not herald the arrival of a miserly work culture, especially if you want to retain the best staff.?
“Despite a growing number of mass layoffs underway in tech – most obviously at Meta Platforms this week and Twitter last week – companies are as concerned as ever about holding onto top performers and keeping staff motivated and productive. For that reason firms including Instacart and Coinbase – both of which have cut staff – have also been offering cash bonuses, more stock or better benefits to workers.”
“It might seem contradictory for employers to be trying to keep some workers happy even while they’re laying off thousands of others. But many companies are cutting predominantly in areas like marketing and recruiting while continuing to hire in technical areas, such as software engineering.”
And it’s worth remembering that even Elon Musk has softened his stance on remote work for some employees, if their “manager takes responsibility for ensuring that you are making an excellent contribution”.
Every company is different, but whether you see yourselves as surfer dudes, corporate dragons or something in between, having an authentic and differentiated employer brand is seemingly a smart idea.
If you’re not done with this subject, check out our previous blog on how to build a great workplace culture, or indeed our guide to the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).
Recruiting fail
When writing a recruiting fail, insert some text and remember to mock the target relentlessly.
Farewell for now
It’s goodbye for another week, but we’ll be back next time for more tech-cellent adventures. Share this newsletter far and wide (and with Elon Musk) and we’ll be back soon.